If you are like me, you saw todays Envoyer email offering “back vintage Joseph Voillot” and were shocked to find out 2017 is now considered “Back Vintage”
Not sure where the time has gone. I still see anything older than 2015 and think “wow, they released that pretty early!” If you are like me, and have been too caught up in worrying about tariffs, elections, viruses, whatever, and the last few vintages run together, I’m hoping to make this thread for us! Hoping to sum up critic reviews of the last few years in some of the big regions, admittedly mostly for myself as a guide, but thought others might benefit from a quick summary as well. I’ll try to add to update as I work on it, but am happy to crowdsource some too, as most of you are far more knowledgeable than I am. Here’s the regions I’m planning to work through:
2014-2019
FR-Bordeaux
FR-Burgundy
FR-Rhone
IT-Piedmont
IT-Chianti/Tuscany
Germany
US-Cali
US-Oregon
again, selfish reasons, these are what I am most interested in. Happy to look at or include others if people want. Will probably work straight on down the list as I update.
Bordeaux
2014
Med+ year
Cooler vintage. More classic. Cabernet based left banks maybe a little better than right bank. possibly early drinking and lighter style. better for whites than reds
2015
Great- year
Hot vintage with drought stress. Some rains near harvest time. Clay soils on right bank helped with water stress. Some high alcohols but also some great wines.
2016
Great year?
Warm, but with good diurnal swings at night to maintain some freshness. universally hailed as pretty great, but right bank and upper left bank typically the best?
2017
Mixed
Really depended on vineyard location. those near the water definitely fared better in frost than the rest. remaining wines are fresh, early drinking, pleasurable
2018
Med+ year
Rainy at first and then hot, dry summer, powerful, tannic wines. likely long lived.
2019
Great- year? great year?
it was warm for most of the year but balanced with some rain. Balance in the wines in early tasting notes seems to be the keyword.
2020
2020 sucks. has nothing to do with Bordeaux.
Burgundy. (uh oh… probably gonna miss some details here)
2014
Cool, wet summer with a dry warm harvest. Significant damage in CdB (especially Volnay) caused uneven quality there. CdN less hail damage. Classic vintage overall.
2015
Great vintage for reds, average(?) for whites. Reds are powerful, but not overpoweringly so. maybe slightly towards darker or riper fruits
2016
Extensive but heterogeneous hail and frost damage leads to it being very difficult to generalize. typically, not the same concentration as 2015, but some producers who were spared frost actually made darkish, intense wines
2017
Overall benign growing season led to increased yields. in some cases wines may be dilate from this but growers who waited out rain at harvest and limited yields made very good wines.
2018
Wet to begin but then warm and dry for just about the rest of the season. Juicy, fruity, with pretty even quality across climats.
2019
Cool start to the year changed to very warm throughout the growing season. powerful, higher alcohol wines but with retained acidity. low yields in some areas
2020
2020 sucks. has nothing to do with Burgundy.